


Break a Leg

by jadencross



Series: Dark Voltron [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood and Gore, Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Keith is emotional, Platonic Relationships, Sorry guys I'm going through a rough time, The crew is Suffering, lance is hurt, lion magic because Blue loves Lance okay, lots of gore, might be a little ooc but pretend that that's because they're in an extreme situation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-13 22:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9145213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadencross/pseuds/jadencross
Summary: When a Galra sentry that Team Voltron had captured escapes, all the Paladins are deployed to find it. However, on an icy planet, danger awaits. Will all the Paladins make it out alive?Or: I only set up the situation and a conversation with my mother (a nurse) was what decided if they would survive or not. I’m so sorry.





	

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So remember at the end of Geodes when I promised I would never write stuff this dark again?
> 
> I lied.
> 
> Whoops.

"Why is it so  _ cold _ ?" Lance complained.

Keith glanced over to see the blue paladin shivering, his Bayard shaking in his hands. Keith didn't feel much better. He could hardly keep his grip on his own Bayard. He grit his teeth, and turned back to the empty tundra.

"Probably because it's an  _ ice planet ,  _ Lance." Keith could hear Pidge's teeth chattering from here.

"Yes, but this is like being cryofrozen slowly." Lance pointed a shaking finger at his smaller teammate. "And cryofreezing  _ sucks. _ "

"Cryofreezing is basically safe frostbite," Hunk put in. "So you're freezing to death in the non-safe way right now."

"Well, so are you!" Lance retorted.

"Nope." Keith glanced over in time to see a smile break across Hunk's face. "I got extra layers. I'm just cold."

"No fair!" Lance huffed, crossing his arms with his blaster still in hand in a way that looked absolutely ridiculous. "If I'm dying of hypothermia you're dying with me!"

"No one's dying, Lance." Shiro's voice was tired as he lead the group deeper into the blizzard. "Everyone's just a little cold, is all."

Lance huffed. "We wouldn't be in this mess if  _ Keith _ hadn't let that Galra sentry escape."

Keith pivoted on his heel, abandoning his lookout position in favor of getting in Lance's face. "We wouldn't be in this mess if  _ you _ hadn't left one of those pods in the open hangar."

Lance's eyes sparked, and he opened his mouth to retort. However, Hunk's hand was suddenly on their shoulders and a kind look in his eyes stopped his words.

"We shouldn't blame each other, guys." Hunk smiled. "Let's just work together and get this over with."

Lance huffed, turning his back on Keith while Keith mirrored the movement. 

"C'mon guys," Shiro sighed, rubbing his temples, "the pod shouldn't be too far ahead. It's still sealed right now, so we can probably keep the sentry from giving away info on us and get some info from it. Now let's keep moving."

They started off again, Keith and Lance keeping their backs to each other and refusing to make eye contact. The silence dragged on. Shiro and Pidge were following the reading on Pidge's scanner, while Keith and Lance were charged with watching for oncoming threats. Hunk watched their back for the same. In the blizzard, it was slow going. 

The solid sheets of ice didn't help much.

They were quiet for a few minutes before Lance broke it, like he always did.

"Ya know, the only reason it's versus its works is because it has no true plural."

"Just stop talking, oh my  _ god. _ " Pidge had stopped and spun on her heel. "We have literally less than a mile left. Can you just wait until we finish?"

Keith couldn't tell whether Lance's wounded expression was an act or real, but he believed it to be somewhere in the middle.

"My insights are a blessing and you know it, Pidge."

Pidge rolled her eyes. "I know you're  _ annoying. _ "

"Wrong. False." Lance smirked. "I'm a blessing to be around."

Pidge snorted, turning back to her scanner and they were off again. "Sounds fake but okay."

They took about ten steps before a loud cracking sound caused them to stop again.

"What was that?" Hunk looked around everywhere he possibly could, searching for the source of the sound. “That sounded an awful lot like ice cracking.”

The cracking came again.

“Oh, that  _ really  _ sounds like ice cracking.”

“Calm down, Hunk,” Shiro said, putting his arm out in front of Pidge to keep her from walking. “There’s ice everywhere. We don’t know for sure if it’s even going to affect us. We just need to stand still and let Allura and Coran see if they can find anything.”

“Um,” Coran’s voice crackled over the speakers, “you might want to have a backup plan. The snow is way too thick for our scanners.”

“We can hardly keep track of you all and the pod,” Allura chimed in. “We don’t know if the ice is in front of you, behind you, or anything.”

“Why don’t we try taking a few steps and see what happens?” Keith tried.

“And plummet to our deaths?” Hunk shook his head. “Oh no. We don’t know what’s under the ice. It could be frozen spikes, for all we know!”

“Or it could be a bed of snow,” Keith replied. “Or, the crack could be miles away from us. Sound travels farther when the ground’s flat.”

“But not that well through snow,” Pidge pointed out.

Keith grit his teeth. “Look, we can’t just sit here and wait forever. We should at least see if we can make the noise and figure out where it is again.”

“That’s a stupid plan.” 

Keith rounded on Lance. “You were the one complaining about freezing to death like three minutes ago.”

“I would rather freeze to death than fall and possibly get impaled by spikes of ice, Keith.”

Keith grit his teeth.

“You should listen to your teammates, Keith,” Shiro poke up. Keith was sure that if they weren’t against the whole ‘moving’ thing he would have his hand on his shoulder. “We don’t know where the crack is coming from. It could be right under us, or it could be miles away. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“If it was right under us, wouldn’t it have cracked by now?”

“Not necessarily.” Pidge shrugged from Shiro’s side. “It might be right under us and one shift of weight could break it completely open.”

Hunk winned. “Can’t Allura or Coran just pick us up?”

“You know they can’t, Hunk.” Shiro tried for a smile. “The winds are too strong. If they came to get us they’d have to land on the ice, if they could even get this close to the ground.”

“I think you guys should just stay put.” Coran stated. “If the ice cracks again, try to figure out where it’s coming from.”

“You all are too far from the lions,” Allura put in. “If the ice broke there’s no way you would make it back before it collapsed.”

“Do we have  _ any  _ idea what’s under the ice?” Hunk’s voice was thin. 

“It’s thick enough that our scanners cannot penetrate it,” was Allura’s reply.

Hunk gulped. “That’s a no, then.”

“It can’t be worse than waiting around for something to find us and eat us!” Keith lifted his foot to begin to walk away.

“You’re gonna kill us all, Keith!” Lance grabbed Keith shoulder, forcing his foot back onto the ground. “We don’t know how stable the ice is. We can’t risk it. With the temperatures as low as they are, there’s a possibility that whatever has broken might freeze over. We have got to be  _ patient _ , which I know is practically  _ impossible _ for a hothead like you.” 

Keith, in the rational part of his brain, knew that Lance was right. He knew that they had to be patient. But the irrational part said that he  _ had  _ been patient and that Lance could never be right. 

To be fair, it had been a long day.

“I can be  _ patient _ ,” Keith ground out. “I  _ have  _ been patient. All day, in fact. I had to listen to you yammering about ‘attractive’ alien women and making the absolute  _ worst _ jokes I have ever heard for the last twenty hours! I just want to find this fucking pod, and fucking go home!”

On his last word, Keith slammed his foot down on the ice in anger.

It wasn’t the best idea.

A large cracking sound came from the ice. Everybody froze as fissures appeared in the ice beneath them, hairline fractures spreading out from Keith’s foot and slowly growing.

“Nice going, Keith,” he heard Pidge mutter before Shiro was screaming.

“Run!”

They all took off, trying in vain to get to the lions. Shiro had actually picked up Pidge and was jumping over fissures and they ran desperately. There was no way they would get to the lions. They had walked miles on the ice before the cracks had appeared. 

And the cracks were appearing faster than the paladins were running.

Keith jumped over a particularly large fissure, but he overshot it. With an  _ oof! _ his feet slid out from under him and he started falling backwards into the cavern that had opened. 

He flailed his arms wildly, everything slowing down. The others were way ahead of him. He was going to fall—

“Keith!”

Lance’s body slammed into Keith’s from behind, righting him but sending him over the other way. They both tumbled to the ground, sliding away from where Keith had almost fallen to his death. 

Lance had somehow flipped over Keith and was sliding in front of him, his hand gripping onto Keith’s leg while they both dug into the ice with fingers and toes to stop themselves from sliding.

A crack opened up and Keith caught his fingers on it, wrenching them both to a stop. Lance cried out as his arm was jerked painfully up. Keith grimaced, but he moved to stand, moving as fast as he could. 

Lance pulled his leg under him to follow suit, but when he went to stand, his foot punched through the ice. Lance looked up at Keith, his eyes blown wide with terror. The fissure opened even more, the black open air becoming more and more visible as Lance’s body hung off the edge. Lance was scrabbling with his hands, trying desperately to pull himself up but he had no leeway. 

Keith knelt, locking his hand around Lance’s arm. Lance’s hand latched onto his, and Keith was sure he wouldn’t ever let go. Keith tried to pull, and he got Lance out about an inch before his own foot slipped  and they both started sliding into the cavern below. 

Keith and Lance both grasped desperately at the edges of the cavern, but the ice just turned to dust beneath their hands and suddenly they were falling.

Lance and Keith both screamed as the cold air sped by, each inch they fell decreasing their chances of surviving. Lance still hadn’t let go of Keith, and now they pulled each other close, trying to find some comfort in the contact.

When they hit, it was against a slanted wall. 

Keith’s back slammed against the ice as Lance’s body only added extra weight. There was a sickening snap from Keith’s leg and Lance’s eyes went wide as the sound traced pain up Keith’s back. After the initial impact they slid until whatever slope they had landed on ended and they were in open air again. 

They were only in the air a few more moments before they slammed against another wall, this time Lance taking the brunt of it. Their hands broke apart, and Keith felt his chest slam into Lance’s ribcage and something sharp stick into his abdomen, but then they were sliding, and Lance was coughing, and Keith’s chest was burning as whatever sharp thing was ripped across his skin as he slid off Lance downhill. 

Keith only had a second to wonder why Lance wasn’t falling at his speed anymore before debris from the upper wall crashed down on his legs. Keith screamed as the weight of the icy boulders crushed his already hurt leg and he saw Lance grimace as the sound was no doubt magnified in his helmet. 

There was a grinding and crunching sound that Keith absolutely  _ refused  _ to think about as they continued down the slope. Keith was moving at a faster pace than Lance, and at some point their hands had become separated. Keith reached out, grasping for Lance and seeing Lance try to do the same. 

Debris suddenly slammed down from above and wedged itself between them both. Keith found himself covered in minor ice shards with larger ones falling between him and Lance. 

Suddenly, there was a jolt, and Keith came to an immediate stop. The boulders that had placed themselves between he and Lance smashed against him and the boulder he was trapped beneath. Keith saw the ground crack under him and shift upward. The new bump in the road stopped the piece of ice Lance had landed on from moving and Lance screamed as he was jolted back with the ice. He shoulder flipped up and his hips jerked forward and blood flew from his mouth, but he remained attached to the ice even though Keith was sure that Lance’s body was going to come crashing against him. 

A few icy boulders bounced over Lance’s piece of ice, and Keith could only watch as they headed straight for him. He tried to move away, but he was completely trapped under the giant snowy boulder. 

Keith saw one of the larger ones coming straight for him, and then he was out.

* * *

 

When Keith woke up, he didn’t want to open his eyes. 

A headache pounded against his skull like it was trying to break free and he felt like his whole body was sore.

Begrudgingly, he opened his eyes. He found that his world was partially blocked by snow and other debris that had rained down from above to land on him, Keith raised a sore arm to brush the stuff away, and thanked whatever god was out there that none of it had been big enough to kill him. 

Once he had cleared most of the stuff around him from view, he looked around the cavern. They had slid down in such a way that the sky up above wasn’t visible. Keith recalled the way that they had bounced and then slid at the bottom. They must be in some sort of underground cave system. If they were, it might take eons for the others to find them. Keith looked back, trying to find what had stopped them, but he couldn’t see anything beyond the giant pile of debris that had landed on Keith’s legs. 

Keith immediately tried not to think about his legs and how much they hurt. He looked up to see Lance, exactly where he had been before. The ice chunk he was on had been stopped by the opened fissure in the ice, but Lance  _ should  _ have come down when the ice stopped. 

He hadn’t.

“Lance,” Keith hissed, immediately regretting saying anything. He hadn’t realized before, but his ears were ringing. “Lance, wake up.”

Lance didn’t move.

Keith tried to adjust to move closer, reaching to grasp Lance’s hand from where it hung over the edge of the ice floe. The angle of the floe was flatter than the ice Keith was sitting on, so he couldn’t properly see all of Lance. Lance’s face was to the ice, and Keith couldn’t see anything but the tip of the visor. 

“Lance.” Keith adjusted one last time, stretching his fingers as much as he could. He felt something pop, and couldn’t help but scream in pain. He retracted his hand, bringing it to his side as he tried to breathe. 

Cracked rib. Great. Must have happened when they first hit the wall.

As the pain faded back into a dull thrumming he realized he could hear voices. Keith stilled, trying to figure out where they were coming from. He and Lance had fallen very far down into this cavern. There was no way that Shiro or the others had made it down this far yet. 

If they ever planned to come down here at all.

“Shiro,” Keith croaked, hoping his coms hadn’t been too badly damaged in the fall. “Shiro?”

A faint buzzing was all that came back.

Apparently Keith had pissed off Lady Luck.

Keith slid off the helmet, hoping that by taking away the static of the coms the ringing in his ears would die down, then looked back up to Lance. Lance wasn’t pinned at all, and Keith needed him awake to help him get out. His legs were probably pretty fucked up, too, so there was no way Keith was going to be able to get out of here without Lance to help him, even if he did somehow manage to get out from the debris.

But as Keith watched the still body, uneasiness grew in his chest. Something about the way Lance lay was wrong. Keith felt like the answer was right at the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite figure it out. 

It was like there was a fog around Keith’s mind. He wasn’t sure if it was the general pain he was in, or if he’d gotten a concussion on the way down. Both options were equally likely.

“Lance?” Keith tried, one more time. His voice was incredibly gravely and even the faint sound of his own voice hurt his head.

Lance didn’t move.

Keith tried to think, tried to figure out what to do, but he couldn’t. The fog in his mind had gotten thicker, making it hard to think complete thoughts. Where was he again? He was cold. He just wanted to sleep.

You didn’t hurt when you slept.

Keith looked up at the body above him one last time before blacking out.

* * *

 

When Keith woke up next, his face was wet. 

Keith scrunched up his eyes, trying to keep the headache at bay, but it was no use. The liquid on his face was weird, though. Had he been crying? He hadn’t cried in years. Why would he cry now? Maybe his body heat was melting the ice. Yeah, that had to be it.

Keith forced his eyes open, ignoring his headache.

He immediately shot up, bending his back as far as it would go and gritting his teeth at the pain.

It wasn’t tears. 

It was blood.

And it wasn’t his.

Keith followed the trail up to Lance. The other boy hadn’t moved, as far as Keith could tell, but now there were long beads of blood running down from the floe where Lance rested.

It was bright red.

Oh god.

Lance was bleeding.

Lance was bleeding to death.

_ If he wasn’t dead already. _

“Lance!” Keith jerked forward again. He felt his ankle catch and he grit his teeth. “Lance, wake up!” Keith pushed his arm out in front of him as far as it would go, hoping that maybe he would be able to grab the other boy’s hand. 

He couldn’t reach.

“Lance,  _ please _ .”

There were tears pressing against the back of Keith’s eyes, but he blinked them away. He had to wake Lance up. He had to get Lance to apply pressure. He had to stay calm and make sure they both got out of here alive. 

Keith struggled to get closer to Lance, but he figured out pretty quickly that there was no way he was going to be able to make it.  _ Lance _ would have to be the one who kept him from bleeding out. Which brought Keith back to his original point.

He had to wake Lance up.

_ If Lance even  _ could  _ wake up. _

Keith pushed the thought to the back of his mind and tried to think of a way to wake Lance up. Being an instinctual person, Keith did the first thing he could think of: he grabbed one of the smaller pieces of snowy debris beside him and threw it.

It hit Lance’s helmet, shattering into powdery snow.

He didn’t move.

Keith mentally screamed at himself. He could have just hurt Lance. He could have just screwed something else up. If he’d hit a wound, he could have caused Lance to bleed out even faster.

Wait. Wound.

Where was Lance bleeding from?

Keith looked up at the other boy, trying to calm his mind.  _ Patience yields focus _ . He’d be no good to Lance in panic mode. He needed to focus. 

After a few deep (and painful) breaths, Keith started to think. He took stock of Lance’s prone form. He could see Lance’s entire right leg and arm, as well as his left arm. Lance was currently laying on his back, arms and legs hanging downward with the slope. Lance’s face was tilted away from Keith upwards, so he had reason to believe that Lance hadn’t immediately passed out after the fall and had turned his head up. Maybe he had radioed the others?

Keith couldn’t see any injuries from the parts of Lance in his viewing. There wasn’t any blood dripping out of the cracks in his armor, either, so even if they were bruised, he wouldn’t be the cause of all this blood.

It must be something he can’t see.

But what would it be? Keith thought back to the fall. Lance had been practically attached to the ice floe since they landed the second time. Ever since, he and Keith had been moving separately, even though they should have been falling at the same speed. Keith hated to say it, but Lance  _ should  _ have been crushed under this boulder with him. 

The way that Lance’s arms and legs were arranged, it was clear that Lance should have fallen onto Keith. But he hadn’t. It was like he was attached to the ice floe. What would have—

Keith’s eyes widened. He thought back to the stinging sensation across his chest, the look of pain in Lance’s eyes when they landed.

Keith pushed himself up to examine his chest, praying his suspicions weren’t true. He grasped desperately against his chest and eventually found the cut, long and jagged and completely cut through his armor. With as thick as Keith’s armor had been, the cut hadn’t been that deep, and it had already stopped bleeding.

But the part of his body that was bleeding hadn’t touched the ice. It had touched Lance.

Horror filled Keith as he looked up at Lance’s still body.

He had been impaled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha get it? Break a leg? Lance is a leg. Ha ha.
> 
> Yeah so this was supposed to be a oneshot, but I have too many stories going at once, and I'm going back to college next Tuesday, so I figured I put the first half out. I might come back and edit this later. Check the notes at the beginning of the next chapter to be sure.
> 
> See you next chapter!
> 
> EDIT MAY 14: I promise I havent abandoned this! I've just recently become a triple major in college and I'm going to Peru this summer, so I have a lot on my mind. I could just shell it out but I want it to absolutely destroy y'all so I decided to make you guys wait. I hope to be able to do it within the next month or so! Sorry for probably the worst cliffhanger I've ever written, but it'll be a bit! See you soon!!


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